October 23, 2018

Holiday Sentiments As Selling Platform - Bob Dilenschneider, et al.

During the past several years, Bob Dilenschneider publishes his reflections on every major public holiday in third-party media.

The next will probably be a placement in establishment media for Thanksgiving.

One would probably assume that the objective of so much effort is selling his services, at least partly. After all, resources are invested in that outreach. Resources represent a business expense.

However, Dilenschneider is not alone.

Beginning in mid-December, just about everyone I had purchased a car, house, or computer services from will be expressing holiday sentiments to me. Of course, more and more of us dread that glut of good wishes.

In this over-communicated/media-surplus era, publishing anything is not often in the public interest. Neither are all those emails, phone calls, and texts.

Most of us need a hug rather than one more article on whatever or a message from any medium. In addition, if someone wants my business, rather than simply emailing a copy of a published article, attach a five-buck gift card for coffee and sweet.

Anyway, in his 2017 reflections on Labor Day, Dilenschneider got a fact wrong. That was saluting America as having the most productive workforce. Actually, in 2017, according to the OECD, the U.S. ranked fifth. Lack of fact-checking does not help the public interest.

Dilenschneider founded public affairs firm The Dilenschneider Group. Given his expertise, the odds are he knows what he is doing in leveraging holiday greetings as possibly a selling platform.

But, my gut, seasoned by coaching sales, raises the question: Has the tactic of holiday greetings become a counterproductive kind of outreach in reaching and bonding with prospects?

Here is what I know: A growing number of my clients, colleagues, and close friends have the fantasy of fleeing the rat race and taking up residence in a secluded cabin.

The only difference of opinion among them is whether that refuge should be on or off the grid. Those favoring the latter indicate they are willing to search the location for a hotspot to link to the internet.

In short, America's new signature trait could be mutating from universal gregariousness to the status symbol of being able to be left alone. That could be the emerging meme in advertising: You can and will be left alone.

More of us who can't pull the plug on an over-communicated society, at least not yet, are making it our business to stock the moat with alligators and pull down the drawbridge. The technology of gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter assists in that.

Often the epiphany comes that the more folks we block, unfriend, and delete the less bleak our little lives seem. Believe me, those wanting to purchase our services or products have no trouble finding us. And, aside from a few stimulating colleagues and caring friends, those are the only other humans I want to hear from. The film "Alpha" killed it because it created a sci-fi explanation of how wolves evolved into man's best friend.

This holiday season, please remove my name from the emails, phone lists, and texts. I will be off the grid in a cottage near Lake Erie. Two two-legged friends and one four-legged one will help me snatch pure joy from the meaning of Christ's birth and the start of a new year.

Attention is the currency of the 21st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.